Crime culture and media- An unholy alliance

Crime is about money. So are criminals. If you want to go broke, find a less sleazy way of doing it. | Source

Crime is a global plague, worse than any real plague caused
by a disease. Mass media represents it as a sort of beauty pageant. It trashes
lives every day, and is still trotted out by the music industry and others as a
fashion statement. Crime is an abuse of human rights on a colossal scale, and
you can see its PR machine on TV and in Hollywood anytime.

Crime is so prevalent that it’s now a way of life
for tens of millions of people, turning over billions of dollars a year. If you
make the equation between “tens of millions” and “billions”, you’ll see
another, truer side of crime- There aren’t too many millionaire criminals. On a
rough average, you’d have more chance of winning a lottery than becoming rich
as a criminal.

Crime is basically a shortcut to guaranteed poverty. A
person who takes $50,000 in a robbery and does five years for it “makes”
$10,000 a year- less than a fast food job. When you’re a kid, it looks like big
money, particularly to people who were poor in the first place, but as a way of
life, it’s a big negative.

Crime is also a high turnover employment market. A few wrong
moves are enough to get you out of the business, or occupying a grave, in some
cases. Most criminals are drama queens, but the actual risks are real enough.
Serious injury, dangers from other criminals, and severe stress are the basic
health hazards. Even the most fanatical adrenalin junkie can have enough of
this kind of “excitement”.

The psychological risks are arguably equally bad. High
stress over long periods of time, particularly in a dangerous environment,
gives people some pretty strange views of the world. They become a risk, even
to their friends.

Al Capone era gangs recognized this problem, and had a
unique diagnosis and solution. They sent a prostitute to the person they
thought was going nuts. If the person responded to the prostitute, they were
OK. If not, they were shot. This type of psychological state actually induced
sexual dysfunction, and was a sure sign of a gang member who was no longer
mentally reliable.

The high poverty type of crime zone is also a health hazard.
TB, AIDS, hepatitis and a lot of STDs are very common in the truly poor
ganglands. This truly murderous environment is a triple whammy. If you’re sick,
you’re vulnerable, because you can’t make money and you can’t protect yourself.

Contrast these scenarios with media crime:

Nobody does crack or ice.

Nobody is sick.

Nobody is really nuts, just cosmetic nuts.

Everybody dresses either “supermarket/Sopranos” or
Fifth Avenue.

Sleaze is sanitized.

The chronic child abuse in poor criminal zones is
never mentioned.

Everyone makes money.

The domestic physical violence, rapes and other sports
aren’t an issue.

So kids watch this unbelievable crap, and it’s “Just like
home, only with guns”.

The message they get is:

Being poor is cool.

Being a criminal is smart.

Being a loudmouth jerk with a gun is cool.

Jail is a holiday resort full of very nice people.

All criminals get rich.

You can trust criminals.

Ripping people off and robbing stores is perfectly
safe.

Violence happens to other people.

Helluva education, isn’t it?

Nobody expects much from the media. After all, what else
would a pack of overpaid, talentless alcoholic coke users do with their time?
These are the same morons who can’t come up with anything but remakes,
prequels, and game shows. Relevance, like sentience, isn’t really their strong
suit.

That said, how many free lunches do these garbage recyclers
deserve? How many more billions should they get for misrepresenting life on
Earth?

I’m glad I asked.

The short answer is that media is also a crime zone. If
you’ve ever wondered why a show with a $200 million budget uses about $5 worth
of props and was apparently always set in an old warehouse, it’s called “money
laundering”. Media and crime are old friends. That’s where the real money goes
to be neatly folded, and comes out nice and clean.

It doesn’t actually cost $5 million to make a few tracks of
music, or to produce a TV show with only one set and a few chairs. Never has,
and you can be sure, never will. And what are the shows and songs about? Crime.

The global misery caused by crime goes on. So do the
terrible, boring hip hop regurgitations, the cookie cutter homeboys and the
staggeringly dull suburbanite reality shows and the herds of bovine nonentities
called celebrities. Crime, producing crimes. Literally insult to the
intelligence, added to injury to the world.

Comments

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Author

Paul Wallis 6 years agofrom Sydney, Australia

Yeah, Bob, have to say doing the cyclones and floods in Queensland for DJ was a pretty grim task. News it was, entertainment, it wasn't.

Bob Ewing 6 years agofrom New Brunswick

"Making money out of other people's suffering is actually par for the course with mass media.' and they call it news.

Author

Paul Wallis 6 years agofrom Sydney, Australia

Quiz Master, I think this situation is the best possible argument imaginable for one way intergalactic travel. They or we, but someone has to go.

Warren 6 years agofrom England

Wonderful article, big thumbs up.

The media needs stricter censoring and the law needs to be stricter too.

Glorifying crime through film though never used to be a problem, you rarely saw the criminals end up with the loot in most films and they usually ended up dead.

Film makers used to have morality, and their moral was crime doesn't pay. Let's get back to that please filmakers.

As for real criminals...

We need to find another large uninhabited island and ship all the criminals (and their families to stop the rot) off to it and let them fend for themselves, never to return. And keep doing it until they get the message that if you can't respect other peoples rights then you don't deserve to live in a normal society, GET LOST!

Author

Paul Wallis 6 years agofrom Sydney, Australia

Yeah, I've been watching that. The word, I think, is "exploitation". Making money out of other people's suffering is actually par for the course with mass media.

Hello, hello, 6 years agofrom London, UK

I agree with you, Paul. Tha media really bringing on programms or films which are disgusting. The latest, they a making or made a film about the murder of Meredith. Thsi is so sick andjust to make money. It is only verdoes who watch it. The oor parents. I don't know how they can bear it.

Author

Paul Wallis 6 years agofrom Sydney, Australia

In a more tolerant frame of mind, I'd say that. Talk about leading people anywhere but where they need to be. Media can now officially be classified as a disease.

666divine 6 years agofrom Toronto, Ontario

What your saying is that the media are the real criminals and deserved to get shot? Right?